Former President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva was in Santo Domingo last week to speak at a conference organized by the Chamber of Construction of the Dominican Republic. During his talk on Friday 1 February, “Employment and Development as a Way out of the Crisis,” he focused on the measures he had taken during his presidency (2003-2011) that are credited for reducing poverty in Brazil, as reported in Diario Libre. He said statistics show that more than 20 million people moved out of poverty and 40 million to middle class status. He said Brazil also diversified its trading partners by doing business with African countries, increasing trade from US$107 billion in 2003 to US$482 billion in 2012. He said that US$90 billion was lent to poor people in seven years creating a revolution in consumer credit. Brazil emerged as the world’s sixth largest economy. He recommended increasing poor people’s access to credit and that government spending should not exceed tax revenue and production. He also advised businesspeople to think beyond profitability. He commented that Latin American integration would only occur when Mexico looks south.
Lula recommended that the Dominican Republic stop seeing itself as a small country. He offered to act as a liaison with the incumbent President of Brazil with a view to building more alliances with the Dominican Republic. Lula says Brazil can help the Dominican Republic with its electricity problems.